Stargazing and Questions
by Araedia
Summary: Zaraki Kenpachi, THE Zaraki Kenpachi, the one who was the object of scary stories that mothers told their children, the devil incarnate... did not tell bedtime stories. Definitely not bedtime stories about rabbits. Father-daughter fluff fic!


**Disclaimer: Bleach and its characters are not mine.**

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><p>"Ken-chan?"<p>

Zaraki Kenpachi, Captain of the Eleventh Squad cracked his eye open at the voice of his Lieutenant. He was leaning back against a boulder large enough and strong enough to take his weight, Yachiru stretched out on his lap. Currently, they were _somewhere_ in the Forest of Rukongai – somewhere being the operative word, considering it was on following Yachiru's atrocious directions that they had ended up in this clearing.

"Hmm?" He had thought that she was already asleep.

She pointed up towards the sky. "Look at those stars, Ken-chan!" she said, twisting around to look at him. "Don't they look like a rabbit?"

His eye – the one not covered by a patch – followed her finger. "Hn." he grunted, hoping that would be enough for her. Personally, _he_ thought that it looked more like the blotch of blood on his haori.

Probably best to just keep his mouth shut and let her do the talking.

"And those look like you!" She pointed to another group. The best he could say about them was that, if he squinted, they looked like a box. "And that's me!" She gestured towards a star that seemed to be sitting on top of the box.

"Hmm."

"Ken-chan, are you killing the rabbit?"

"Yeah."

Her eyes turned back towards the 'rabbit'. "Ne, Ken-chan... tell me a story about a rabbit. _Please_?" She turned her red-brown eyes pleadingly towards Zaraki, widening them as much as possible.

Zaraki was aghast, to put it mildly. Zaraki Kenpachi, _the _Zaraki Kenpachi, at whose name every (well, almost every – that bastard Kuchiki hardly even blinked) Shinigami shuddered, the one who was the object of scary stories that mothers told their children, the devil incarnate... did not tell bedtime stories. _Definitely_ not bedtime stories about _rabbits_.

"No."

"Pleeeaaase, Keeenn-chaaa –"

"All right, all right." _It's only to keep her quiet, _he told himself. Not because her puppy-dog eyes never failed to melt him to a big pile of goop. Nah.

"Yay!" She turned back, her chin now resting on his chest, staring up at him adoringly.

"There was once a rabbit called..." he started, "... Bunny." _Way to be original, _his inner voice mocked. "He was a very big rabbit, who... er... was as big as a... the Eleventh Squad."

Zaraki looked around for inspiration. Finding none, his eyes fell back on the stars which Yachiru claimed was 'him'. "And then he came to Seiretei, and... er, became a Hollow Bunny, which had to be killed. So I... er, killed him and the whole Division was covered in blood and pieces of Bunny."

Yachiru still looked up expectantly at him.

"And that's the end of Bunny, and the story, kid. Now go to sleep."

She looked disappointed. "That can't be it, Ken-chan! Stories are longer!"

He mentally groaned as she turned the full force of her eyes on him again. "Well... all the pieces of Bunny became tiny little rabbits, which we caught and roasted. And then we ate them. End of story."

"Did they taste good?" she questioned. "Yeah."

"Oh." She lapsed into a silence, unconsciously biting her lips as she thought about something. Her eyes went back to the dark sky.

"How are stars stuck to the sky, Ken-chan?"

Honestly, _how_ did he give the kid the idea that he knew everything? "They're people whose reiatsu became too huge, so they floated up and got stuck to the sky."

Yachiru's eyes went wide. "Does that mean you'll become a star too, Ken-chan?" she asked, her voice anxious. "I don't want you to become a star!"

"Don't worry, only jii-chans are stupid enough to get stuck up there."

"Oh."

He wasn't sure he liked those silences any more. Once, silence meant blessed peace and quiet from his Lieutenant's incessant babbling. Now, it meant that she was coming up with weird questions and horrifically embarrassing requests. _I still can't believe that _I_ told a bedtime story._

"Ken-chan?" Ah, here it comes.

"Don't those stars look like Bunny's babies?" "Hmm."

"How do rabbits make babies? How do _we_ make babies?"

His eyes widened – even the one under the patch – and Zaraki sat up so quickly that he almost knocked Yachiru off. _Why now?_

This was the question he had been dreading ever since they visited the Real World and met that strawberry's daughter. _Right, _he thought determinedly. He wasn't going to put it off, and make some ridiculous story up for Yachiru. She'd asked, and that meant that she was ready for it... right?

"Yachiru," he began. "You see, when a mommy and a daddy want a baby, they..."

"Yes?" Yachiru's expression was so eager... and so innocent.

"... they climb up a tree and pluck a baby off the branches." It _wasn't_ chickening out, it was merely... strategic retreat. Or so he liked to tell himself.

"Oh? Then why haven't I ever seen one?" she asked.

"You need a special tree for that."

"Oh."

Silence. He really didn't want to know what she was cooking up now.

"Ken-chan, let's ask Ichi-kun and Midget-chan where to find a baby tree, okay? Then we'll make a baby for ourselves and I'll have someone to play with!" She smiled up at him.

Dear God. He never wanted to knock himself unconscious more than now.

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><p><strong>Just some random father-daughter fluff that just popped into my head. Reviews, please?<strong>


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